One Night in Bangkok

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!! 

After what seemed like forever, we finally arrived in Bangkok around 8:30 pm Tuesday evening.  We were extremely surprised at how easy it was to go through immigration.  They didn't even ask us how long we plan to stay.  Actually the immigration officer didn't say a single word to me.  She just swiped my passport, stamped it and I was on my way.  She did ask Garrett his name and that was about it.  She probably had no interest in talking to the stinky, sweaty American who looked like she was about to pass out.  They also have an interesting customs area.  Green lane means nothing to declare and red lane means you are declaring goods but there was no paperwork needed to be filled out.  

We headed to the taxi stand which is the most organized taxi stand we have ever seen. There were about 50 lanes and you stand single file in any of them until you reach the girl at the desk.  You tell her your destination and then you proceed to the taxi under the electronic sign of the number lane you are in.  That simple!!! All airport taxi stands should work this way.  We got in the taxi under the electronic sign 25 and off we went.  Our taxi driver was a very nice man who had absolutely no idea where Plai Garden Boutique Hotel was.  He ended up taking us about 20 blocks past our destination until we figured out where he needed to take us. Lesson #1 ALWAYS have the name, address, and phone number handy for anywhere you are trying to go especially via taxi.  

Plai Garden was fine. It was literally a place to crash for one night and close to the airport as we had tickets to fly to Chiang Mai the next morning. The area it was in was well, a bit sketchy. Certainly not an area I’d wonder around at night by myself or maybe at all. 

The view from our balcony

Garrett and I were pretty hungry after eating plane food for almost 2 days so we decided to venture out for dinner.  On the corner of our street there was a woman who owned a restaurant that was till serving at 10pm Tuesday night.  They were extremely hospitable and sweet.  We ordered a few local beers (Leo) and our dinners which seemed small by american standards but I couldn't finish mine.  Thats where Garrett and I seem to work.  I eat what I can and he takes the rest of my hands.  Its perfect!  Plus we save money cause we don’t have to order more food than necessary.  The glasses they brought us had ice in them and we are trying to be careful about water and ice. We decided to dump the ice, so Garrett pushed his plastic chair back to throw the ice onto the street and as he did, he broke the chair and fell to the ground! I couldn't stop laughing and neither could the owner. Garrett’s face was as red as the chair he broke.  The best part was as Garret stood up, he had the glass in hand and didn’t even break it.  The owner ran over and gave Garrett a chair made from metal instead of plastic. 

Drinking a Leo before "chair incident"

Dinner was really good. I had fried chicken and basil and Garrett had the pork version. It was pretty good. During dinner, Garrett looks down and points out a decent sized rat at the table next to us. I wasn’t that thrown off as I live in the city and have seen river rats twice the size of the Bangkok rat. After dinner and a few beers, Garret and I decide to return to our room and get some rest for the next day of travel.  On our way back to the hotel and past the back of the restaurant, we see a woman that works at the restaurant squatting by the road with a huge tub of dishes washing them in the dirty street while waving goodbye to us.  We waved goodbye and after walking a good distance past her we turned to each other and started laughing, so much for dumping the ice! 

yum!

The next morning, we woke up and wondered around the street to try to find coffee. We find a coffee stand on the side of the road and it smells amazing. Totally disregarding our no ice theory after seeing how our dishes were washed and how amazing the ice coffee looked, Garrett ordered an ice coffee.  Here in Thailand, they use condensed milk as sweetener and shaved ice and it is delicious. We headed back to the hotel to catch the shuttle to the airport at 8am.  We had a 10am flight on Thai Lion Air to Chiang Mai.  We get to the airport at 8:10 with plenty of time to spare and when we look for Thai Lion Air we can’t find the desk.  Garrett asks a woman at the information desk where we check in and she looks at us like we are crazy.  She tells us that Thai Lion Air only flies out of the other airport and it’s 45 minutes away.  We thank her and run to the taxi stand as fas as we can.  We are in the taxi at 8:15 and tell the driver to get us to the other airport as quickly as possible.  We are cruising to the airport and in great shape when we hit morning traffic.  We were racing the clock to get to this flight. Lesson #2: ALWAYS double check the reservation to be sure you are at the correct airport.  We arrived at the airport around 9:20am with 45 minutes to spare.  As we are waiting in the Disney World wrap around line to check in, one of the Thai Lion desk receptionists asks us if we are going to Chiang Mai.  We tell her yes and she takes our passports to check us in.  She then returns and tells us we are on the 10:50 flight to Chiang Mai. Lesson #3 ALWAYS check the reservation to be sure the departure time is correct.  We boarded our 10:50 flight and were off to Chiang Mai. 

Every journey begins with a single step

72 hours later of travel has left us disoriented, exhausted and hesitant to think about going anywhere than Chiang Mai.  The Loy Krathrong festival is about letting go of the past and setting one’s mind towards a positive future, a message suiting after the few hiccups we endured while traveling to Chiang Mai.  We have learned many important lessons in the few short days of travel, some relatively inexpensively considering how serious things could have landed.  We are here, happy, healthy and striving forward to actualize our goal of an enriching experience.

Our connecting flight from Pittsburgh to Chicago was hosted by American Airlines.  We had considered booking with AA to Bangkok (BKK), but the reviews were 2/5 stars compared to that of Qatar Airways of 4/5 stars.   The flight was smooth and seating relatively organized.  I was unable to check in online for QA (strike 1) which required a little trading to get our seats together.  About 30 minutes into the flight, I was getting a little thirsty from the dry cabin air.  I reached down into my bag and grabbed my dripping water bottle, to discover that it had leaked all throughout my carry on and ONTO my laptop! The water appeared to be on the screen and keyboard only.  I dried it off the best I could and turned the air vents onto it.  The anticipation was too much to bear and reluctantly, I turned it on. To my relief, it turned on.  New rule: no liquids in the same bag as the computer.

We landed on time in Chicago and had nearly 3 hours until our flight departed on QA to Doha, Qatar.  Stacey and I were both very excited that everything was going smoothly as far as our flights were concerned… letting our guard down far too prematurely.  The next flight was listed at Gate M11… yet there was no concourse “M” listed anywhere.  Stacey inquired with a TSA official and they directed to us to an auxiliary gate were a shuttle would take us to our gate of departure.  We asked the British Airways employee standing at the gate when the shuttle would arrive.  She was not very helpful and said that they came every hour.  After waiting for an hour, we began to worry about the accuracy of her information.  It wasn’t until I talked to the fourth person in uniform that we got any answer or solid advice.  “Go through security and take the tram over to Terminal 5.”  We had an hour and a half to get there.

We teamed up with Chuck, another passenger on our flight waiting in vain at the obscure terminal.  It seems he had been given the same information and wasn’t too happy about it either.  We scurried out through the airport, onto the tram and found our stop a few moments later.  The line for the QA desk was stacked pretty deep and we were forced to wait through it due to the lack of electronic check in booths.  After waiting for 20 minutes in line, our opportunity to learn our fate arrived.  The attendant struggled with both of our passports and ultimately needed to key them in, which required the authorization of a supervisor…. more time.  Now she had our reservations pulled up.  Yes, they had our seats reserved, but we weren’t seated together (strike 2).  Another complication was that our baggage was tagged to Doha… not BKK (strike 3).   We got our boarding passes and our baggage rechecked and were on our way.  The flight was boarding in 15 minutes.  

Security was a nightmare… immediately it was clear that we were in the international terminal.  A diverse group of people shuffled through security. Australians, Chinese, New Zealanders, Indians, and many more cultures were immediately represented.  Our ears were full in unfamiliar languages and our eyes of exotic attire worn by our new air bound companions.  The tension was crippling, but we recognized many of the passengers from the ticket line and knew they would hold the plane if so many of us were missing.  Before long, we were through and hustling to our gate.

The plane was mostly fully boarded and we speculated on the likelihood of switching seats to travel together on the upcoming 12 hour flight.  The triple rows of triple seats were rolled out before us down the stretch of the plane… some 40 rows long.  I quickly located my seat and was thankful to find a solitary old man in the row that was more than happy to switch seats with Stacey.  WIN! We would be able to keep each other company during the intercontinental flight. 

We welcomed the young, non English speaking Arabian boy of about 9 years old to complete our row.  He flirted with Stacey and we expected an entertaining flight ahead with him at the aisle seat of our row.  But, alas, the boy departed soon before take off and we had the whole row to ourselves!  It started to look like that some travel karma was beginning to fall our way.

Sleep was beginning to creep and we were soon hastened there with the help of our first meal of the flight.  Several options were presented and were mainly middle eastern themed.  We both inhaled our meals due to skipping dinner to make the flight.  This became the nail in the sleepy coffin.  Darkness, full stomachs, the constant drone of the turbine engines cleared the path to get some rest (a couple glasses of champagne didn’t hurt matters either).  

I awoke to learn that I slept most of the daylight away, consequently missing all of Europe by air.  My slumber was interrupted before crossing the southwestern tip of the Black Sea and northern Turkey into Iran.  Glacier capped mountains stretched down to the desert with their spiky tendrils of foothills.  I imagined myself in the crisp white mountain cirques that lay so far below.  I wondered if people of that area enjoyed the mountains as I had throughout the western United States.  Such peace can be be assumed lies below from such a height.  Farm fields were tucked into the hillsides, while much of the lower valleys appeared too arid to support a harvest.  A muddy river cut its twisting path through the towering heights, frothy white at the faster sections and smooth as a cup hot chocolate through the flats, gaining volume and power with the addition of each tributary down its eventual path to the ocean.  Kuwait was now to the south of our plane and the flames its oil fields shone brightly through the inky darkness and into my window 25,0000 feet above.  Doha, Qatar quickly showed itself with its well lit roadways, boats rocking in the water and flickering lights of its many skyscrapers.

We landed in Doha and settled in for our 12 hour layover.  The airport was wondrously  clean and new.  The concourses were wide and tall with a mezzanine above. 

Ample seating was available everywhere.  There were “quiet rooms” and “prayer rooms,”  that were each segregated into and women, being a Islamic country.  In the center of the terminal we found high end shopping options.  Rolex, Burberry, Esquire, Chanel, and on and on were all available.  Jewelers offered a wide variety of gold jewelry, crystals and and bars of 99.999% pure gold.  Luxury sports cars were being offered as prizes in some sort of contest.  Needless to say, we walked right past these shopping outlets.

Our bodies were tight and sore from the long flight and we were happy to walk the lactic acid off through the airport.  Cleaning staff and attendants were could be found everywhere.  Each bathroom employed an attendant to squeegee the water off of the sinks or to assist passengers with whatever they may need.  The airport was diverse in its offerings of settings and amenities.  There were several playgrounds for children in the airport, with one large play structure in the center of the terminal.  The lighting for the signs was eloquently done by using solid piece opaque plexiglass backlighted with a silhouetted image.  Most notably was the computer station near the couches which we posted up at for the layover.  The station offered 12 desktop Mac computers connected to the internet free of charge.  Behind the computers was a TV lounge and an open rest area.  Between our couches and the computers was an arrangement of cafe style tables and chairs, which many passengers could useful to set up and work on their computers from on the free wireless internet.  We spent the layover napping and reading in our little corner of concourse B.

The second leg to BKK was smooth and easy.  Our seats were together and we boarded from back of the plane to the front… a totally easy process.  The six hour flight felt brief thanks to the three hour nap we both were able to squeeze in.  A decent landing into Suvarnabhumi International Airport and we were in the taxi headed to our hotel.  

We have arrived.